From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever...


This movie is part of the collection: Community Video

Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: environment; waste; corporations; oil; money; products; advertising; planned obsolescence; landfill; economics

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Reviewer: USABG58 - - December 28, 2011
Subject: Some truths, some questionable facts, some naïveté
Yes, planet Earth is the Suicide Planet, yes it is fixable, and yes, we might have enough time to fix it.
Make me the absolute dictator of Earth and give me real power to enforce my will.
Population of Earth: 1,000,000.
Vast tracts of land uninhabited by humans.
90% of human production closed-loop.
99% of Americans very unhappy.
Earth healing.
My progeny will control Earth and enforce unpopular policies to restrict technology, control human population, and enforce a green system of production until Earth heals.
All hail to the Dictator. We have no alternative. No, I'm not being facetious. Really. This is what will save life on Earth. Seriously. For real for real.

Reviewer: PH1941 - - December 17, 2011
Subject: Guilty of making assumptions
The problem with work like this is the producer takes more than a few leaps of logic and cosequence that make assumptions not grounded in realities...especially economic reality.

This leftist / anti-capitalist screed falsely jumps to self-fulfilling conclusions in the same way right-wing / new world order propaganda does.

I'm a middle of the road person cursed with common sense and a fair sense of good reason. The host begins to lose me with comments such as "It's the governments job to take care of us" and those about losing percentages of original forests and so forth.

It's a thought provoking piece and there are redeeming qualities. We all need to have an awareness of our impact on our envrionment but scare tactics and over the top assumptions of total doom only are a disservice to the cause.

See "The Power of Nightmares" right here on the IA to understand how this type of fear tactic is used as a means to increase the power and infulence of the movement behind it. She rails about big corporations (and correctly so in many instances...) but uses fear and manipulation of economic facts and rational reality as a means to an end.

The bottom line is we need more common sense on both sides of this argument. We can't have a runaway destruction of the envrionment and we need to be mindful of our personal impact on the world. However, the folks like me - in the middle - should refuse to be pawns in the fear based manipulation of our well-being.

We need an economy and a smooth running economy has self-regulation that is ignored or at best glossed over by the host.

The bottom line is: watch this video and don't drink the Kool-Aid; use it as a means to draw your own more reasonable conclusion.

It claims to be well researched, but, all the research presented in the video only supports the thesis of the presenter. She started with this conclusion in mind and only window dresses her presumptions with convenient facts.

It's more harmful envrionmental Power of Nightmares. No less harmful than government Power of Nightmares.

Can you imagine how little we would need from "experts" if we realized that not everything is an absolute crisis an inch away from total destruction?

I'm tired of the lies on all sides and I frankly refuse to be fooled by big-government, big-corporations, self-serving academics and na're do wells.

Reviewer: wontell - - September 19, 2011
Subject: PROPANDGA
WHAT A LOAD OF B......S...... DIDN'T KNOW WHETHER TO SHOOT MY COMPUTER OF DECLARE WAR....THIS IS WORSE THAN GORE AND GLOBAL WARMING. THE WORLD IS OR WILL GO TO HELL IF THIS KIND OF TRIP DON'T STOP....GUESS SOME JUST DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO DO THAN COME UP WITH THE TRUCKLOADS B S THAT APPEARS MORE AND MORE....SAD DAY FOR SURE...

Reviewer: Deva Hanna - - September 17, 2011
Subject: GOOOOOOD!
Really Creative!

Reviewer: Digital_Axis - - August 13, 2011
Subject: Deserves MORE than five stars
Well researched and excellently presented. I have to agree with the other posted comments, this is an eye opening and frightening video that should be mandatory viewing for all people in industrialized and developing nations. Great documentary and a superb upload.

Reviewer: douloi - - August 12, 2011
Subject: Exxxcellent!
Great, I loved it! Annie is super. I must confess I didn't catch all of it because I'm not an English native speaker, yet I guess Annie really drives fast. This documentary should be sponsored and supported by Governments of this planet (since they're there to watch on us, isn'it Annie?) and played in schools of all sorts. Thank you so much.
Maurizio

Reviewer: Claudg1950 - - June 11, 2011
Subject: Figures are SO impressive. Really scary video
It is a fantastic video. Cristal clear. Easy for everybody to understand, yet accurate and well researched.
Don't take my word for it. Just watch it and later you'll tell me whether this is not one of those must-see works.
Kudos to Annie Leonard.